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Page 2 ufl laxly W 77 Years of Editorial Kermit Perversion An "open" meeting will be held Monday concerning the present visitation policy of the University. The meeting is an attempt by Dean of Men James O. Cansler and student Bill Darrah, co-chairmen of the Open House Committee, to fulfill their long-standing promise to solicit student opinions on visitation. But the manner in which the meeting is being set up. is inconsistent with the spirit in which that long-awaited meeting was originally conceived. Instead of holding a meeting truly open to all the students in this University, Mr. Cansler and Mr. Darrah have invited only residence college officers, fraternity and sorority officers, resident advisors and graduate counsellors, and college masters and housemothers. Such guest list could not hope to comprise all the student opinions which would be available in an open meeting really open to all students, an open' meeting which the many students dissatisfied with the present visitation policies have been expecting. The announcement Thursday from the two co-chairmen of the committee is only Another step into the quagmire lriTwnich all efforts" for a realistic visitation policy in this University have long been entrenched. This newspaper is more than disturbed over the dawdling nature of the University administration in this matter. The students on this campus deserve to live lives which bear some resemblance to the Real World. As if a perverted atmosphere in areas such as visitation wasn't enough, the administration has failed to conduct its investigation of the problem in a perfectly honest way. The students were promised an open meeting. We suggest Messrs Cansler and Darrah make some effort to provide them with one. Murderers All A California jury decreed Wednesday that Sirhan B. Sirhan, die in the gas chamber for the murder of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Regardless of Mr. Sirhan's guilt, and his right to an appeal, and the possibility of prolonging indefinitely the execution of his sentence, we are confounded by the values of life and death as set down in the penal system of this nation. Most people . familiar with the events of Senator Kennedy's murder are rather convinced of Mr. Sirhan's guilt. The jury itself handed down a verdict of guilty. There were, of course, psychologists and psychiatrists who testified that Mr. Sirhan was a "paranoid schizophrenic incapable of deliberate premeditation" in slaying Senator Kennedy. But the testimony of those experts was ignored. Okay. So Sirhan did commit the murder. And maybe he was capable of committing a murder in a ; moment of sanity. Is that reason to commit further murder? Are we still living under the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a death for a death? If life has any value at all, we are ignoring that value when we can legally sentence one to death. Those seven men and five women Freedom Todd Cohen Chairmaji J. D. Wilkinson Bobby Nowell Harvey Elliott Steve Enfield Art Chansky Arlene Jacobson Mike Cozza John Kelly Executive Editor Managing Editor Arts Editor Associate Editor Sports Editor Copy Editor Editorialists Bill Staton Buckner, Jr. Business Manager Advertising Manager David Clark Night Editor this issue on the Sirhan jury ignored the value of life. As we observe the situation, life has no inherent meaning or truth other than its existence. We instill life with human meaning through our self-perception. Our systems of law are an attempt to articulate that meaning as founded in our mores, traditions, customs, fashions, and fads. Thus, the law is a time-tested, human, intellectual concept. But the law is not truth, as religion is not truth. Only does it have meaning by virtue of our obedience to it and our ability to see meaning in it. If the law was developed primarily to preserve and protect life, then it is blantantly inconsistent to construction of a law which is empowered to dole out death. It is argued that the death penalty is a deterrent for potential murderers. This reasoning is faulty on two counts. The number of murders in this country each year are evidence that the "deterrent" factor is rather small. Most murders are crimes of passion occurring in the lower class, and, in a crime of passion, rationale is almost non-existent. , ln addition, even if the deterrent :j factor was effective, there is no rationale for legalizing death in the context of a system of law which was created to preserve and protect life. Anyone who feels Mr. Sirhan should be sentenced to death is just as guilty as Mr. Sirhan. The twelve human beings who offered the sentence of death Wednesday are murderers. It may be that the jury was partially blinded by their duty to work within the context of the law, which allows the sentencing of death. For that reason the law is also at fault, and we as citizens of this country, are guilty for allowing such a law to exist. The jury which convicted and sentenced Mr. Sirhan was comprised of California citizens. Consequently the California law is at fault. It is apropos to point out that North Carolina law provides for sentencing human beings to death in the gas chamber, and by a vote of the State Legislature this month that provision will be retained. If life, or law, is to have any meaning at all, that meaning will not exist until human being cease to mete out death. Power, Power Governor Scott, having proposed a strengthened Board of Higher Education with himself as chairman, does not intend to give up his position as Chairman of the Board of Trustees-that figures. Once more he wants to postpone the review of the procedure by which faculty tenure is determined and the system of student discipline-that also figures. In our opinion, Governor Scott is making another power play for more control of the University. We wonder when he will realize he is not, and never will be, a member of the University community and should mind his own business. Faculty tenure and student discipline are the express concern of the University community. THE DAILY Seeking By PAUL METZ America is not a state: it is a process. The success to date of this nation is the result of a Heraclitan war between shifting poles. The poles have at various times been Puritanism and Rousseauistic confidence in man, Victorianism and Freudian release, elitist autocracy and attempts to guarantee equal opportunity based on a belief in equal natural merit. The war is Heraclitan, in that it contains its own justification and merit: it is not Darwinian, for there is no victor; it is not . Hegelian, for no compromise is reached. The issues shift, but one suspects those aligned along either side of the conflict, which may be oversimplified as repression versus libertarianism, would be very compatible if introduced across time. The past twenty years have been characterized by a dangerous consensus. A belief in the intrinsic value of work, a desire to foster man's individual and collective progress, most importantly a belief that such progress is a realistic ' concept and is attainable, have resulted in at least an apparent welding of national aspirations. One result has been a noticeable dearth of artistic excellence. It is not that no great art,' music, or literature has been produced; it is simply that no segment of the population exists sufficiently coherent and distinct to designate any individual work, artist, or school as artistically ascendant. Let us not forget that it is by such a process of identification that any art becomes "great." This state of diffusion of ideals and attitudes has well fitted its time this is, of course, all one can ask of any idea or attitude. The generation now in power in government, industry, and education has fought and survived a struggle to which its optimistic conflict attitude applied well. The America that has been thus produced is possibly the best that individuals wombed in a depression, raised in war, and exposed to industrial explosion could produce! American youth should not protest the success-oriented, somewhat authoritarian attitude of their parents a coincidence of attitudes with the timeless drives of authority, self-amelioration, and controlled rage is sufficient for any generation. But we must not forget that the timeless drives visit our generation as ; well. William James called for a moral alternative to warranyonef familiar with , Freudian notionsJifJibidin needs no furtherjganaU 5 Today's column includes the last of my collected suggestions from the suggestion box that sat unattended in the lobby of Lenoir Hall for more than two years. Exactly who put the box there, when it was done, and who was supposed to empty it remain as unanswered questions. The box carried the simple notation "Campus Affairs Committee," and shortly after this columnist began , emptying it and publishing the suggestions, it disappeared. No doubt we can thank some overly protective student politico or some , underly efficient Food Service manager for its disappearance. Take note of the thinking and dedication that must havi gone in to suggestions such as these: "Rehang the pictures of Fischer and 1 Liebig in 268 Venable. And please put Mendelyev back in his original place. Thank you." "Please do something about the General College Language requirement. The Spanish method in particular needs revision. "Doors in Lenoir Hall should be adapted to open outward and not inward. Doors which open inward can cause numerous unnecessary deaths in case of fire." Please buy more Girl Scout Cookies. (signed) Discouraged Girl Scouts.' "Paint a yellow center stripe on the road from Chase Dining Hall to the Bell Tower, along side the stadium." (Editor's note: I'd like to add to this Please put a road along side the stadium. What we have there now is little more than a trench). "The UNC Book Exchange should place on sale entire cartons of blue (examination) books for students. I figure each student uses about 20 blue books each year. Such an offer, at a discount (from the five cents each rate) would appeal to economy-minded, clairvoyant underclassmea" TAR HEEL A New Philosophy meaning or of necessity for this. Those who feel that a space race will satisfy this need are deceived we have already witnessed the alienation from a feeling of identity with the end product of industry of the man on the assembly line. That the simple taxpayer should feel he is conquering the moon is lunacy. What is needed, then, is a coalescence of attitudes in the new generation to provide a pole to dominant feelings. This will require identification of problems and consensus concerning means of solution. The middle-class life-style we witness today is appropriate only for those who have already experienced their crucible. If we feel pressure from our elders to conform to this, it is only because, as Nietzsche said, "All that is ripe longs to die." And nothing that longs to die wants to leave survivors. The problems we face today seem to have been identified. Our generation's principle concern seems to enter on social mobility. Sociology has confronted us with the painful fact that the poor of America have a negligible opportunity to rise. This gets us halfway to reaching a feeling of the times to safely and productively harness the otherwise suicidal impulses of our timeless internal legacy. It is the means of confronting our The Death ... we pause for a moment on our evening stroll to observe the man hiding grunting behind the tree fussing with his hands fussing with some object which we cannot see twitching twisted but blessed by a cast.of men who since the birth of the first strangling light hid themselves behind reason hid from their own animal groans Oliver thomas Letters The Daily Tar Heel accepts all letters for publication provitted they are typed, double - spaced and signed. Letters should be io longer than 300 words in length. We reserve the Tight to edit for libelous statements,. V i . Mike Cozza on Suggestions: The "The UNC campus needs more street lights. It's much to dark in several places to walk at night, especially for coeds, (signed) A Coed." , "I have been trying to reach third floor Winston since 6 p.m. yesterday. It is now 10:30 in the morning. The situation surpasses the ridiculous and approaches the sublime. I should think the hint is obvious for the problem should have been eliminated much earlier. Instead of wasting money on two intra-house phones, why not have one intra and two extra-house phones? The converse is, shall we say, sadistic, (signed) Enraged Caller." "There are no pencil sharpeners in Hinton James. It's a beautiful high-rise dorm and plenty modern, but somebody ought to spend a few dollars for some Why Black Separatism? Why Not? By J. D. WILKINSON People who decry the current trend of the Black Revolution toward the "militant" separatist doctrine seem to be overlooking one rather vital factor in the issue: history. What history? Not the history that American students, black and white, have been taught in the schools of this nation. Rather the real history of the white man's exploitation of the non-white peoples of the earth. The activities of white Americans and Europeans in Asia and Africa are indeed shameful, but perhaps the white mans greatest shame lies ie the story or his exploitation of the black people of America. This story is uniquely disturbing in that it involves the mass capture, enslavement, and relocation of a segment of the African people. Additionally, it involves centuries of cruel domination, economic exploitation, and psychological dehumanization. These African people were forcibly removed from their homeland, taken to America against their will, held in captivity, and .systematically robbed of their personal identity for three hundred years. Only now are they beginning to realize that they do have a history of their own, a history of which they can be problem that we can not agree upon, Early in the 60's a great optimism about the efficacy of the Peace Corps and various forms of ghetto work to "improve the world" existed. This has died and the alternative now being considered is violent revolution or revolutions. In considering this alternative, we must subject ourselves to frank introspection. Are we certain that violent striking out against authority does not represent an only slightly modified expression of the authority we revile? Are we certain, to refer to some immediate situations as found at Wisconsin, San Francisco State, and Harvard, that we are not merely reacting to the anomie of college life and that, for many of us, going to college itself was only a means of accepting the lock-step path to our parents life-style before we reached mental puberty? In other words, are we certain that, violence is not simply a reaction against the older generation as we find it in ourselves? The wise man, as found in reams of Eastern thought, does not confront authority, for he realizes that in doing so he provides it with its life-fuel. He steps around it. That we were disillusioned in our hope for a better world though hard work in the streets and schools does not belie the efficacy of such an approach it merely shows our naive underestimation of the problems. It is understandable that our generation, raised as it has been, should be slow to realize that an act of will is not a fact of attainment. I suggest that the only way our generation can find a feeling, a philosophy or life-plan to unite us, to help us confront our problems, and to keep us at peace with ourselves while honestly expressing our views to the rest of the nation rather than reacting to someone else's as found in ourselves, is to return to the streets and schools and prisons and rural areas of poor America. The problem here is a lack of trumpets. No romantic slogans can vitalize us as we enter conflict here. The romantic conflict attitude we were raised in is not satisfied by such conflict. Someone must find a way, short of ultimately disillusioning calls to arms as tried with the early Peace Corps, to focus mass attention on these problems. Perhaps the amount of violence already seen has done this. A more unifying means is needed, however, and no suggestions come to mind. One cannot be very optimistic when one places hope for a generation on that generations' individuals. In this case, however, one cannot . be. optimistic, at , . all if he recommends the alternative. Last Batch pencil sharpeners.' "Keep Saturdays, period." the library open later on and especially during exam "The walkway on the west side of Davie Hall should be extended both ways to connect with the earlier brick paths. And grass should be planted on the slopes behind it which are becoming eroded." (The suggestion includes an elaborate, hand-drawn map showing exactly where the walks and the grass are needed). "Get this ugly suggestion box out of here." Fortunately or unfortunately, the last suggestion was followed. The box is gone, I dare say, for ever. proud, a history" which is not part of the white man's history, a history which is divorced from the white man's world. Those people, black and white, who would force social integration on black Americans are really seeking to deny them the opportunity to realize to the fullest their true identity. They are saying, "Be one of us;" but what they mean is "Be white." The black man : cannot be truly free in American society because American society is a white Judao-Christian society whose heritage has no connection with the African heritage of the black man. The black man is a part of American society not because he willed it so but because it was forced upon him, and the black people will always be a suppressed minority as long as they are part of that American society. Why should a black man have any desire to be considered an American or to be a part of American society? America stands for the enslavement, exploitation, and annihilation of black people ... as well as red people and yellow people. To ask a black man to accept that tradition is to ask him to deny his own humanity, his own identity, his own existence. Most integrationists mean well. They just are not aware of the fact that integration means continuation of the historical tradition of cruel exploitation by the white man and blind self-denial by the black man. Friday, AprU 251 969 Land Of The Free? To the editor: Why should we, in a nation which permits discrimination because of color, allows a tenth of its population to live in poverty, wages an immoral war and supports a puppet government in Vietnam, show reverence to that nation's flag or anthem? America today is neither the land of the free nor the home of the brave, and only a hypocrite could hold this opinion. With surplus produce enough to feed most of the starving people of the world, the United States allows children in Biafra to die of hunger, and suffers its own poor to search through garbage for sustenance. In 1967 our Department of Agriculture returned $200 million which was to have been used to feed impoverished families, ; Using national security as an excuse, 1 the American government justifies ; conscription, and refuses to acknowledge -this as an infringement upon the basic individual right to dissent. ' In social context, we as participants -are coerced by tradition and nationalistic spirit into revering the symbols of the -American government, the same -government which allows, even perpetuates, the atrocities described 1 above. At football games and other public functions we are requisitioned to stand for the playing of the national anthem. . And students, to receive financial aid, must pledge allegiance to the flag, apple pie, and motherhood. - Consequently we, the undersigned," herewith disclose our intention to no -longer acknowledge the flag and the -anthem as a true representative of .' America. And additionally suggest that-; ethers of our sentiment also follow this course. '. Mr. Robert A. Ponder ' 547 Morrison Mr. Delano Quick'. 107 Mangum Oliver Vs. Grove To the editor: I'm certainly glad to know that Mr. Grove took the time to ready my letter. It's a shame he didn't learn anything. However, I do congratulate him on recognizing the prophetic and visionary character of Mr. Goldwater's speeches, and I thank him for the comparison. I also owe him a vote of thanks for relieving me of the tinge of guilt I felt in making one or two not-quite-nice about Mr. Wilkinson. Next to Mr. Grove, I'm an incurable Melanie Wilkes. And I compliment his artistic talent. He certainly makes an excellent case against whomever he was disputing. However, it wasn't me. The points he conjures and disputes arise out of thin air, misuse of quotes, reorganization of thoughts, and deliberate "non-sequiturs" (such as his inference that, because I dare say something complimentary about America, it "So what follows that my attitude is if American is a little imperalisitc and a little totalitarian, and so what if a few dead Americans litter the ground in Vietnam? We still have guns and drums and flags and Old Glory is still up there above the polluted plain." though that last is well-phrased, isn't it?), and deviate so far from what I actually said that his comments are worthless, except perhaps to qualify him for the role of chief saboteur for the Radish or Ramparts. Mr. Grove takes great pleasure in poking fun at my "optimism" and points with almost a perverted pride to "racism, rotting qities, ten million hungry people. . .dead Americans." People who are willing to see only the bad are limited to a sick and narrow life, and I pity them. But then, I'm sure Mr. Grove must pity me; after all, it isn't everyone who can achieve the monumental flaws I, according to Mr. Grove possess: I am "illogical," "naive," and suffer from "phobic anti-communism," and "abysmal ignorance." Drat, and I have finished my letter without having hung one adjective on Mr. Grove. How about phobic cynicism (O.K., I know it's a noun see, I'm not abysmally ignorant), irresponsible, and extremist. That still leaves him one up. In conclusion, I plead guilty to one giant non-sequitur, the belief that if I wrote a rational plea for sanity, that readers such as Mr. Grove would be able to understand it. Obviously, it does not follow. Yours truly, Trent Oliver "Department of English" The DairyTar Heel is published by the University of North Carolina Student Publication's Board, dairy except Monday, examination periods and vacations and during summer periods. Offices are at the Student Union ,Bldg., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514. Telephone numbers: editorial, sports, news 933-1011; business, circulation, advertising 933-1163, Address: Box 1080, Chapel HilL N.C. 27514 Subscription rates: $9 per year, $5 per semester. We regret that we can accept only prepaid -subscriptions. ' Classified ads are $1.00 per day prepaid. Display rate is $1.25 per column inch. Second class postage paid at Ui. Post Office in Chapel Hill, N.C. k i
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 25, 1969, edition 1
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